


The Arcana: Merely Pawns

by luabays



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel), the arcana
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-10 13:00:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19906108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luabays/pseuds/luabays
Summary: Pawns in a dangerous chess game are set into motion. A apprentice magician with no memories, a hooligan who lost everything, a servant that feels like a ghost, a voiceless princess, a tyrant queen, a loyal knight and a wanderer lady. How will those characters play through this strange magical journey that Destiny has put them in?





	1. The Magician

**Author's Note:**

> Following the steps of each route with some twists to fit all of my seven Original Character into one single plotline, this story contains many lines and narration from the game. Its was modified in a way to be loyal to the story and game characters while also adding to it though depictions, characters and even scenes.

I am a student of the magical arts.

Not pretty sure if this is how I should start to tell this story, but as it was the first thing I knew about myself, you should know this first as well. I know only just as much as my mentor, Asra, has decided to tell me. I know nothing of his past, but he is my only link to mine. He has taught me everything I know of magic.

Our life is simple. We live together in our magic shop in Vesuvia with our familiars. We have pumpkin bread once in a while at a local shop in the market. Asra travels and so I am alone. It repeats itself over and over, a routine, round and round just like a wheel.

“Do you have to go?”

I watch him go around the shop, fixing little things that got off place during the day. He is not even gone yet and I already am missing him. Medea, my familiar, hangs heavily on my shoulders.

“It’s the right time.” Asra pulls his tarot deck from inside his traveling bag. “I will entrust you to them while I’m gone, so you don’t miss me as much.” He jokes.

I let Medea slide into the floor when I take the deck from his hand. His deck is powerful. It carries his aura for it is of his own craft, his own making.

“Let’s make a last reading before you go, then.” I suggest, in hopes it will give us some more time together.

“Excellent suggestion.” Asra smiles. It’s with his eyes mostly, I can see he really does appreciate the idea.

The dim night light illuminates the table as we pass the gauzy curtains of the shop’s reading area.

“Of course you would think that, I already perfected reading the cards.”

“Have you?” He teases.

“As you always say, I am gifted.”

“Well, then. Let’s see you perfect technique.” Same cocky smile that I adore crosses his features.

Just as we sit down I can see Asra reach towards the floor. Faust, a long purple serpent winds around his arm. She is his familiar, a curious snake with lots of personality indeed. Medea, is nowhere to be found right now. She is a bigger snake, a lot bigger, her teal scales contrast beautifully with Faust’s when they are close to each other.

Asra’s eyes follow the cards as I shuffle the deck.

“The high priestess.” I say calmly as he leans close. “You’ve forsaken her.”

“Have I?” He frowns.

“You pushed her away. She calls out, but you won’t listens.” I inhale, preparing to try and warn him. “Asra, if you- “

My train of thought is cut by a sharp knock on the door that startles us. It’s not usual for our customers to come at this hour. I certainly did not forget to put out the lantern.

“Well, that must be a sign. I can’t delay it any longer.”

I watch he gathering up the rest of his things. I am always left wondering why he has to go as well as what he will bring from his adventures. However, if I ask, I know he won’t answer me, he never does.

“Take care, Jasper.” I can see in his eyes he has more to say, but he won’t, again, he never does. “Until we meet again.”

Just like that, he slips out the back door.

There’s another knock. Seemingly impatient at this point.

I open the door.

The costumer steps in and unwind the shawl that covers their features. As the fine cloth slips away to reveal their face, my heart leaps into my throat.

“Forgive me for the hour… but I shall not suffer another sleepless night.”

“Countess!” The title spills out my mouth fast as a hummingbird. I make a light bow at her.

“There is no need for such a allard. Please, you must read the cards for me.”

“Of course! You’ve come to the right place!” I try my best to give a truthful smile.

I notice her gaze roaming over the shop.

“Your reputation precedes you, I wanted to see your talents for myself before I made my proposal.”

“Proposal?”

“Come to the palace, be my guest for a short while. You will be afforded every luxury, of course. All I ask of you is to bring your magic and the arcana.” Her eyes fixate on mine as she speaks and I can feel them piercing through my very own soul. “But first… Shall we do a reading?”

I usher her to our humble backroom, not even a quarter as confident as I was when reading for Asra.The countess sits herself across from me. Her eyes dart around the small space of the room before falling on the cards in the table between us. As I shuffle the deck once more, she folds her hands before her with elegance and closes her eyes.

“The magician.” She opens her eyes to inspect the card before her.

“How very appropriate.”

“You have a plan important to you.”

“Should I set it into motion?” She ask with piercing eyes flashing in the lamplight.

“Now is the time, everything has fallen into place.” I announce.

“Say no more.” Giving the card a last glance, she stands, trows back the curtains and strides back into the shop proper.

I follow.

“Your fortunes are much the same as the others I’ve heard. And yet… you are the first to pique my interest.” Winding the shawl around her face once again, she crosses the shop to the front door.

I open it for her.

“I will see you tomorrow, then, at the palace. Pleasant dreams.”

With that, she goes past me and into the night fog.

Tonight, the fog is thick, blanketing the street in an ethereal milky glow.


	2. The High Priestess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter our hooligan. 
> 
> Jasper receives some other visitors on the night Asra leaves. Jade meets someone from his past and remanesces about them.

I am a student of the magical arts.

Three years ago I lost people who meant the world to me for the Red Plague. It was a contagious disease that assaulted the city, taking many lives, marking many people. I could still remember the vivid red in the sclera of passer bys while walking the streets.

When I go into Asra’s shop through the back door, that’s what I am mulling over.

Jasper is there, startled when he sees me come through the door. His features are familiar, but yet, different. I knew him before he forgot.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” I ask.

“Shouldn’t you be asleep as well, Jade?”

“Had a bad feeling.” I shrug. “I know Asra isn’t at home so I ought to come check on you.”

“As if I need a babysitter.” He rolls his eyes at me.

Sometimes I see it in him. Traces of who he used to be, traces of the brother I used to know. The reminiscent thought brings a smile to my lips.

“Strange hour for a shop to keep.”

We both look around, startled. Eyes darting around the shop, chasing the voice in the dim light of the lamps. Against the door looms a tall figure with a plague mask, it’s dressed in black, the white with piercing red glass for eyes of the mask gains spotlight..

“So… _this is the witch’s lair_. Then... who might _you_ be?”

My heart races as the intruder avances. I put myself between them and Jasper. What can I say in my defense? Nothing really. Jasper is my brother. Even if he does not remember that. I can feel magic tingling it’s way until it reaches my fingertips, suddenly, I know the stranger won’t stand a chance.

Energy surges, I try and attack the stranger who revidates.

They duck, swirling the cape they wear in an outrageous theatrical flourish. Jasper watches the scene with wide eyes, too invested in it to actually help. He seems rather amused.

“Help out!” I yell at him as the masked stranger swings a left hook at me. I dodge by a hair and smirk, has been long since I got into a fist fight.

Just as I was beginning to have fun, a bottle flies across the room. Knocked loose by Jasper’s bottle, the plague mask clatters to the floor.

“... you do have guts.” The man, who no longer is a stranger in my eyes, says. His gaze on Jasper.

I can see blood coming from somewhere beyond his hairline, most likely from where the bootle hit.

If my heart was racing, when his gaze falls upon me it stops. I know his face, and not only from the “wanted” posters all over the city.

“Quickly now. Where is the witch?” I can see Jasper glare at him from the corner of my eye.

“Asra is gone.” He says.

Julian Devorak wipes the blood on his brow, his eyes more on the floor than on me or Jasper. I watch him as if he would vanish if I averted my gaze.

“Is that so… well, no sense in wasting the visit.” He turns to Jasper. “Tell my fortune and I will leave you in peace.”

“I will do it.”

Julian turns to me once more.

“After _you_ then.”

I nod at Jasper and pull “my” tarot deck from my bag. Julian’s figure looms over the table even after he has dropped himself into the reading chair. My deck is not as fancy as Asra’s, but I would never dare to lay my hands on it without his permission. I shuffle my cards. The have acquired a yellow-ish color, their backs are blue and the figures nothing alike those on the other deck. Regardless, the arcana will tell the fortune.

“Tell me your name. I need it for the reading.” I ask, casually. His eyes track my every move as I take my place.

“Call me Julian.”

I don’t need to shuffle as much. The card I turn calls to me easily.

“Death.”

“ _Death!_ ” Julian barks with uncontrollable laughter. He turns away from the table and raises his eyes to heaven. “Death cast her gaze on this wretch and turned away.”

“You didn’t let me -”

“She has no interest in an abomination like me.” He strides out of the back room without a backward glance.

I frown.

“Your witch friend will be back for you. He’s taught you his tricks.” Julian says and turns to my brother, who is with his huge familiar wrapped all around him. “You may even say that he cares about you.” He picks his mask from the floor. “When he is back… seek me out, for your own sake.”

He gives me a long, hard look, before fixing his mask into place. Treatrical as ever, he throws the door open with a swirl of his great black cape. I notice It’s early morning as he disappears behind it.

“What the _hell_ was that?” Jasper asks with a giggle.

“An old friend of mine.”

“That makes two weird visitors tonight, just after Asra left. Is this a test?”

“If, by any means, Asra was testing you, he would be observing and he is gone.”

I sit myself on the counter and stare at Jasper’s vivid pink eyes. He has a secret.

“Tell me.”

“I was invited to the palace, by the countess herself.”

“You should get ready then. I will look for the shop while you are there.”

“How comes you are always around when I need help, Jade?“

“I told you that. Asra asks me to look after you more often than I would like. I am the babysitter.”

We laugh together. The truth hurts as it tries to escape my throat. For his own safety and happiness, my brother has to remain a stranger.

*

They had met Julian before the plague ended, before Jasper was taken, before their scar. It was a different time.

Jade was strolling down the street with his brother when they found Doctor Devorak's clinic, flooded by plagued individuals. Jasper was ecstatic, he wanted to work with Devorak and, with Asra already at the palace trying to help find a cure, there was nothing holding him back. Jumping into dangerous thighs used to be (maybe it still is), his twin’s favorite thing to do. As always, Jade would follow.

Falling for the Doctor was a slow process. It started with making coffee for him and for Jasper when they would stay awake until late. After they started making dinner for them too. In six months, Jade was the one to prepare all the food the three of them consumed.

“Do you truly want to stay with someone who thinks of himself so lowly?“ Jasper asked one morning.

The answer to instantly pop on their head was "yes".

Julian was such a lovable person. Lively, dedicated, funny, even a bit snarky and a little of a masochist. Jade liked staying with him, talking with him, hearing his stories about his childhood with his sister in Nevivon. They loved having to stand on their toes to give him hugs and the way his laugh sounded. The way his eyes gleamed when talking about his short lived adventure as a pirate and the way his hair couldn't be styled without some kind of deal with the devil.

Then he was gone.

They were gone.

Julian went to the palace by the count's request to try and find a cure for the red plage. Many doctors were requested and never came back. The Red Plague was a force to be reckoned with.

Soon after, Jasper was gone, too. Taken, not only by the sickness their beloveds tried to cure, but by the guards to be thrown in the Lazaret. The only thing Julian and Jasper left were scars. Jasper's a physical one, just over their right eye, gotten as Jade attempted to delay his brother's death a little more, to protect him a little more.

Julian's, a angry ugly mash of feelings, so annoying that every time they thought of the Doctor they felt like slapping him.

Oh, if Jade only knew the opportunity to do such thing would arrive so soon. Oh, if they only knew how much they would want to kiss those lips instead of slapping that beautiful and smug face.


End file.
